“Since you have to go to the base once you wake up, get plenty of sleep today.”
Kwon Jeonghoo had brought Yeo Dowoon home, completely ignoring the base’s instructions to return quickly and write an incident report. Since he had taken him away in the car without even reporting, the word “stole” might be more appropriate.
He couldn’t even dare to check his phone with the explosive contacts piling up from a few hours ago. But he wanted to decline moving the unconscious and collapsed Yeo Dowoon to the base.
“I’ll lock the door on my way out.”
After stroking Yeo Dowoon’s cheek and whispering softly, he stood up.
There was no other good night greeting besides that. Yeo Dowoon heard the click of the lights turning off. Kwon Jeonghoo carefully pushed the door closed so as not to make a loud noise.
As soon as he left, Yeo Dowoon pulled the blanket over his face.
“……Haa.”
They say you lose three years of your lifespan with each sigh, and if this rumor was true, his life seemed already ruined. He felt indescribably wronged and resentful.
Kwon Jeonghoo, who had been a father and teacher to him, a teacher and brother, was growing more distant day by day. He who had always been by his side and seemed like he would present a desirable direction.
He dry-washed his face anxiously inside the blanket deeply imbued with Kwon Jeonghoo’s scent.
It felt like he had no one left on his side.
***
Yeo Dowoon, who woke up at dawn when a faint blue light seeped through the window cracks, staggered down from the bed. Perhaps because he had slept deeply without waking even once, he felt much more refreshed.
When he checked the clock, it was just a little past 6 o’clock.
“Ah, Yoon Minoh……”
He muttered the name of the young Esper who had popped up even in his dreams and chased him around.
“Persistent bastard.”
Perhaps because he had dreamed of being trapped on a deserted island alone with Yoon Minoh, unlike his body, his mind was hazy and gloomy. Yeo Dowoon went straight into the bathroom and looked at the mirror. He glared at himself angrily.
“Really a mess….”
Even as he roughly washed his haggard face and bit down on the toothbrush with toothpaste, drowsiness kept poking at his eyes. Only after rinsing his mouth several times did his head finally seem clear and vivid.
“Captain?”
He opened the door and said while slyly looking around the living room. Since the decibel was almost at a whisper level, it seemed like not even a single ant could hear it.
Kwon Jeonghoo’s officetel was basically gray-toned. The rug laid in the living room, the sofa, and the wallpaper all had the commonality of being the same gray, differing only in saturation.
“I wonder if he’s sleeping.”
Yeo Dowoon walked barefoot without even glancing at the indoor slippers placed in front of the door. Presumably, since the place where he had slept was the guest room, he thought Kwon Jeonghoo might be sleeping in his own room.
Squeak, turning the doorknob, he discovered Kwon Jeonghoo lying down with his bare thighs exposed from under the blanket and cleared his throat with a cough. Below the bed, the edge of a towel that he had clearly used was disheveled.
‘What was he doing alone that he’s sleeping without even wearing pajama bottoms.’
Thud. Yeo Dowoon carefully closed the door. This was because if he woke up from his sleep due to the sudden noise, there would be absolutely no benefit for him.
Returning to the living room, he sat on the sofa and organized his thoughts that were tangled like a ball of yarn. There was a mountain of things to resolve, but the priorities weren’t crystal clear, so his head was also twisted.
At his own home, whenever this happened, he would open the window wide and breathe in plenty of dawn air, but Kwon Jeonghoo’s officetel was structured so that the windows couldn’t be opened because it was too high up.
“I told him to move quickly….”
However, Kwon Jeonghoo seemed to like the closed atmosphere of this house like a sealed room and had completely put down stakes.
Although it was an officetel where many famous people whose names you would recognize also lived, it was the worst of the worst house for Yeo Dowoon in that the windows were decorative.
“Let’s leave at 7.”
After briefly making plans, he sprawled out on the sofa and savored the leisure. Only the tick-tock sound of the clock hand advancing shallowly echoed through the living room.
When it became exactly 7 o’clock, Yeo Dowoon grabbed his coat and slipped out of the officetel. He also swiped Kwon Jeonghoo’s car keys that were placed on the table.
It was unmistakably theft, but he succeeded in rationalizing it as just borrowing for a moment. If a problem arose, he would just get him a new car.
“Our Captain’s tastes are still the same.”
The car brand Kwon Jeonghoo favored was Volvo. Since he heard that he had changed cars after starting to live with him, he had been sticking to Volvo for a full 10 years now.
‘Volvo is perfect for driving you around.’
The image of Kwon Jeonghoo saying that while reclining the car seat vaguely swept through his memory.
When riding in his car to work, he would slightly open the window and catch up on unfinished sleep. He missed the breeze and sunlight streaming in a little, just a very little bit.
“How pathetic….”
Yeo Dowoon twisted the steering wheel to the left while recalling Kwon Jeonghoo’s driving habits.
He drove the car like a leisurely scholar. He would unconditionally pass and wait at close-call signals, and when someone suddenly cut in and he had to brake, he would give a hollow laugh and check on his condition. Even if he wasn’t hurt, he would drive the car more slowly than before.
It seemed like he was having all sorts of pointless thoughts, like how he was now holding the steering wheel that he used to hold.
Yeo Dowoon arrived near his destination and skillfully finished parking. The Esper specialized hospital facility he visited again was desolate without a single visitor, perhaps because it was early morning.
“Go up and shower first……”
Inside the elevator where the smell of disinfectant strongly spread. Yeo Dowoon, who had been reciting the plan he had set up while coming here, changed his mind.
‘No, that’s not right.’
This was because he thought, since he was going to meet that bastard Yoon Minoh anyway, there was no need to go to the trouble of even performing ritual ablutions.
Since he had come out after washing his face and brushing his teeth, that alone counted as showing courtesy.
Unlike last time, Yeo Dowoon swiftly found Yoon Minoh’s hospital room. This was thanks to his name hanging on the very first hospital room in the corridor.
-Yes! Today, registered as an intangible cultural asset….
The flashy lights and bustling sounds coming from the television greeted Yeo Dowoon.
In the darkened hospital room, only the television was transmitting a lively screen. Yeo Dowoon, who had barged into the hospital room without even knocking, faced the tall young man sleeping soundly like a newborn baby.
He could hear purring breath sounds.
Yoon Minoh had thrown off his blanket and was sprawled out spread-eagled. Below his calves where muscles were prominently defined, a square pillow was laid.
“Shameless bastard.”
Yeo Dowoon, who walked forward while disparaging him to his face, pulled out a chair with a scraping sound and sat down.
Coming closer, he realized that what he had thought was a pillow was actually a heating pad. These days, they seemed to be released in such fluffy forms too.
“……”
Yeo Dowoon looked down at Yoon Minoh’s thick ankle that still hadn’t lost its bluish tinge. Since he had frozen it as if making a taxidermy, even if he had received guiding, aftereffects would remain.
Although interrogating Yoon Minoh was also urgent, first he had to firmly decide his own course.
***
“……Mmm?”
Yoon Minoh, who had been enjoying a sound sleep, opened his eyes after several hours had passed. Actually, he could have slept longer, but he had woken up to check because he kept feeling a strange presence nearby.
“Ah, crazy! What the…!”
He was shocked to the point of fainting when he encountered a figure sitting in a chair and staring at him with a cold face.
Yeo Dowoon, who had a haggard complexion like a grim reaper, breathed “haa.” All the energy in his body had drained after doing serious contemplation for the first time in a long while.
“You’re only waking up now?”
At the reproach he heard immediately upon waking from a deep sleep, Yoon Minoh raised his eye corners in disbelief. He grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it with a whoosh.
“No? I’m going to sleep more.”
He glanced at Yeo Dowoon as if feeling wronged and buried himself back under the blanket. However, Yeo Dowoon easily took away the blanket and warned.
“Get up unless you want your ankle completely ruined. I don’t want to use abilities in the hospital.”
Yoon Minoh’s back flinched for a moment.
Raising his upper body with sluggish movements, he was making an expression that looked as fragile as an injured animal. He didn’t know where that brat who had brazenly provoked him had disappeared to, as he kept begging with a clumsy attitude.
“Hyung. Are you really mad?”
“……”
“I’m sorry. I really, really didn’t know the fight would escalate like that….”
“……”
“I thought it would end after a few arguments like usual. Why would I think of getting into a physical fight with hyung unless I was crazy? It’s obvious I’d lose.”
Yeo Dowoon nodded emptily in time with his speaking speed. He also slowly stroked the blanket that made rustling sounds.
Yoon Minoh, who had been watching his mood, sneakily asked.
“Why are you acting like a dog that needs to shit?”
“Why…, did we fight again?”
At the puzzled question, Yoon Minoh sharply contorted his features as if dumbfounded.
“…Ridiculous. Don’t you remember hyung turning my ankle into organic ice cream?”
He said while gesturing to his ankle that was still suffering from the cold. While at it, he also unwrapped the heating pad he was wearing and wrapped it around his opposite ankle. Warm heat climbed up through the coldness.
Yeo Dowoon didn’t give back either an affirmative or a negative answer. It was truly a strange scene.
“……So. How much do you remember?”
